140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Love letter to old-time radio from Lucas relies too heavily on slapstick but is otherwise a wonderful, fun picture and an overlooked gem…
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Radioland Murders:
Understatement of the year: George Lucas has certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of his childhood interests. Most of his biggest successes stem from things near and dear to him as a child or young man. Serial films, car racing, 50’s music and culture – all of these are direct influences in American Graffiti, Star Wars & Indiana Jones. His love of old-time radio shows would therefore provide the inspiration for a new story, Radioland Murders.
Lucas gave the story to the husband/wife team of Willard Hyuck & Gloria Katz, whose screenplay was put into pre-production by Universal shortly after the release of American Graffiti. It was languishing but still alive after the release of the original Star Wars, with Cindy Williams and Steve Martin reportedly committed to play the leads. (That bit of casting actually probably would have worked quite well.) For whatever reason, execs thought the period comedy wouldn’t play and it went into development hell. (Odd considering the studio’s success with the period comedy Graffiti.)
The picture would be revived in the early 1990’s as Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) had developed their effects production to the point where the picture could be made for a (relatively) small budget. (No, it’s not really a big FX picture, but there are a lot of mattes.)
They hired Moonlighting writers Jeff Reno & Ron Osborn to update the script a bit for modern audiences, and the studio stocked the ensemble cast with familiar faces. The idea of updating a 1930’s setting for 1990’s audiences sets off all kinds of alarms, but it really works fine; the tone is surprisingly appropriate and consistent.
The story that made it to screen is typical screwball comedy, mixed with a murder mystery. Set in 1939, the picture follows married but separated couple Roger & Penny Henderson (Brian Benben & Mary Stuart Masterson) on one hectic opening night at new radio station WBN in Chicago. Station owner General Walt Whalen (Ned Beatty) is trying to launch a new national radio network and needs everything to go perfectly. Of course, he’s in for a long night: the sponsor hates all of the material, forcing the unpaid writers to come up with all new material on the spot; his son is totally incompetent as the director – that is, when he can be drawn away from having an affair with the stage manager’s wife; virtually every staff member is openly feuding; and, oh yeah, a mysterious voice is repeatedly cutting into the broadcast shortly before committing a series of murders.
The pace of the film is terrific, keeping the action madcap and the zingers coming. The escapades are very funny and the ensemble cast is perfectly able to keep the snappy dialogue and physical comedy sharp. The only real problem is that it doesn’t know when to quit; the slapstick just keeps going. It’s great for the first act but is really hard to sustain for 112 minutes. It just gets to be a bit much. I don’t actually think the length of the film is a problem, even though that’s pretty ambitious for comedy. But the best thing about the film is also the worst – you just don’t get a second to breathe.
If the slapstick and physical humor is overdone, it’s certainly done well. The relatively unknown Benben seems made for this part and Masterson is equally adept at the His Girl Friday pace. The action is captured by English tv director Mel Smith and DP David Tattersall. It’s actually quite amusing to look through the credits on this picture, as so many of the names were those that we’d be seeing again quite soon for The Phantom Menace. As much as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Radioland Murders functioned as a type of farm system for the team that would make the Star Wars prequels. With hindsight you can see how everything Lucasfilm did in the late 80’s into the 1990’s was all by way of preparing for a new kind of filmmaking that Lucas wanted in order to revisit the galaxy far, far away.
If all that Radioland Murders accomplished was to further techniques for making future films, it would have to be viewed as a success. It certainly wasn’t categorized as a win in any other measure at the time. The film was mostly panned by critics and an absolute flop at the box office, not even approaching it’s still minor budget of $15 million. It was nearly five years after release before I even heard about it. And that is all very unfortunate, because I love this picture. It is very well made, with a sensational ensemble cast and a great sense of fun.
There’s a wonderful musical quality to the picture. The rhythms of the action pieces are interwoven with the various songs of the period in a very effective manner and the time period as depicted is simply a gas. It’s a wonderful setting. Michael McKean as the clearly Spike Jones-inspired bandleader looks like he’s having the time of his life, and he certainly gets some of the most enthusiastic work.
I want you to see just some the people who show up in this picture:
- Michael Lerner
- Brion James
- Stephen Tobolowsky
- Michael McKean
- Corbin Bernsen
- Bobcat Goldthwait
- Jeffrey Tambor
- Larry Miller
- Christopher Lloyd
- Harvey Korman
- George Burns (his last film)
- Joey Lawrence
- Peter MacNicol
- Robert Klein
- Rosemary Clooney (her last film)
Yes, it’s too frenzied and could do with a few quiet moments, but Radioland Murders is a funny movie that is very worthwhile and sadly overlooked. Recommended.
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: C (6 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Brian Benben Roger Henderson, Mary Stuart Masterson Penny Henderson, Ned Beatty General Walt Whalen, George Burns Milt Lackey |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 21 Oct 1994 UTC |
| Director | Mel Smith |
| Genres | Comedy, Crime, Drama, Musical, Mystery, Romance |
| Plot | In 1939, WBN, a fourth radio network, is about to take to America’s airwaves. As if the confusion of the premiere night wasn’t enough… |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 108 |
| Tagline | At station WBN, the hits just keep on coming. |
| Writers | George Lucas (story), Willard Huyck (screenplay) … |
| Year | 1994 |
